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Sunday reporter scoops world exclusive with ‘Peru 2′ interview

Patricia Devlin outside the jail.

A journalist at a regional Sunday title evaded prison guards to secure an exclusive interview with one of the British women jailed in Peru for drug smuggling.

Reporter Patricia Devlin, of the Sunday Life in Belfast, managed to gain entry to the jail where the so-called “Peru 2″ are being held, despite journalists being banned from visiting them.

She then conducted a three-hour interview with Michaella McCollum, beating the nationals to a story which has since been followed up across the UK and Irish media.

Michaella, from Co Tyrone, and Melissa Reid from Lenzie, near Glasgow, were each sentenced to six years and eight months in prison last month for drug smuggling, after being caught with £1.5m of cocaine in Peru.

Patricia’s exclusive first interview with Michaella resulted in a splash and six pages of inside coverage in last Sunday’s paper.

She said Michaella told her that around 50 journalists had tried to gain entry to the jail but had not been able to because they were banned.

Patricia, who joined the paper last July, covered the pair’s court case in Lima just before Christmas and then decided to visit the Virgen de Fatima prison where the 20-year-old drug smugglers are being held.

She discovered that Sunday was visiting day and turned up on the day, being allowed entry by the guards who did not ask her if she was a journalist.

Said Patricia: “I can’t speak Spanish and none of the guards that day could speak English so I was just waved on into the visits area.

“I think the guards just assumed I was a friend. I later learned the authorities at the jail didn’t want any journalists to visit the Peru 2 but I was never asked at any point if I was a journalist.

“While Michaella McCollum was amazed I got past security, she was very happy to have a visitor from home and had no qualms about speaking to me at length about her life in prison and events leading to her arrest.

“The Peruvian police later explained to me that the case has caused a huge headache for the government and that they wanted all publicity about it done and dusted. They were fed up with the worldwide press focus on the case and the questioning of their drugs laws.”

During the visit Patricia spoke to both the women but after a short discussion, Melissa said she could not speak to the press anymore.

But Michaella spoke to her for three hours, admitting that she had taken drugs in Ibiza before going Peru and speaking about the “hellish” conditions inside jail in Peru where they share their cell and a toilet with 100 other women.

She also continued to maintain that she and Melissa had been forced to smuggle cocaine by a crime gang.

Sunday Life editor Martin Breen said: “It was a huge investment to send a reporter and photographer to Peru but Patricia’s hard work ensured it paid off. This was a fantastic scoop.”

14 comments

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  • January 16, 2014 at 8:04 am
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    Frankly, like me, most decent people won’t have a shred of sympathy for these two common criminals – nor, I’m afraid, the slightest interest in reading their stories!

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  • January 16, 2014 at 9:39 am
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    Observer50 – If you are a journalist and you sincerely believe what you just wrote then you should find a new career.

    A journalist’s job is to document all life and serve the public interest, not to ignore sections of society because you find them ‘common’. Elitism has no place in journalism, and it is certainly in the public interest to investigate how British citizens, who continue to protest their innocence, are being treated in a foreign prison.

    I also think the massive interest in this interview demonstrates that a large section of society is deeply interested in these girls, their case and their treatment.

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  • January 16, 2014 at 9:49 am
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    You don’t have to have sympathy for them to recognise this is a brilliant piece of journalism, aided by a bit of luck – but as we all know, you make your own luck at times. Well done Patricia.

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  • January 16, 2014 at 10:15 am
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    Great scoop, shows that the nationals don’t get all the big stories and that regionals don’t have to buy up the big stories like many of the nationals do.

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  • January 16, 2014 at 10:27 am
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    Surely whether you have any sympathy for the Peru 2 and have no interest in reading about them is irrelevant, Observer50?
    Many people clearly are interested – which is why the scoop was followed up by the Mirror, Sun, Daily Mail, BBC, RTE and others.
    But the main point is that a young reporter, only at a paper for less than six months and on her first big assignment – one that many national reporters would find difficult – managed to get a result here.
    It’s also impressive that in this day and age of cuts to local journalism, that the regional paper made the decision to make an investment like this. It would have been a gamble for them to send a young reporter thousands of miles across the Atlantic at great expense, not knowing what the outcome would be.
    So for her to pull it off and secure an exclusive that clearly the nationals would have been proud of, given the main tabloids lifted it, surely merits praise?
    This is a website for regional journalism and, with your own feeling about the Peru 2 aside, I’d like to think you can respect the fact that it was a big deal for the newspaper, but moreso for the fledgling reporter, to get this scoop. It’s always nice to see any regional paper beat the nationals, given the gulf in resources between them.

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  • January 16, 2014 at 10:35 am
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    Editorial bosses seem to be a bit out of step with public opinion in stories such as these. They assume that the British public is more sympathetic to the offenders banged up abroad than is actually the case. The impression I get is that most people in Britain are sick of what they see as ‘soft’ justice here, so are quite pleased when a Brit is convicted of a crime abroad and has to endure a harsh imprisonment.

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  • January 16, 2014 at 1:14 pm
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    Golam,

    This is Hold The Front Page. Perhaps you were looking for the Daily Mail’s comment threads?

    Meanwhile, on this trade website for journalists, I’d like to also offer my praise to Patricia. Years ago, this sort of achievement and exposure would have had bigger publications (no disrespect to Sunday Life) clambering for her signature.

    Lucky? Maybe. But luck is something that is often a byproduct of natural talent and all those other things are difficult to instill in young reporters – something Patricia clearly possesses. Bloody well done, I say.

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  • January 16, 2014 at 1:57 pm
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    * “…all those other things WHICH are difficult to instill…”

    ** Apologies.

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  • January 16, 2014 at 2:02 pm
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    Well done Patricia and well done the Sunday Mail for giving her the chance for the exclusive.Great job and a credit to good decent journalism.

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  • January 16, 2014 at 2:27 pm
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    Trust the first comment to be criticising the worthiness of the story while completely ignoring the excellent work of the reporter. Honestly, cheer up!

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  • January 16, 2014 at 5:54 pm
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    Well done to Patricia, an excellent journalist who left her local Johnston Press paper in Mid-Ulster to join Sunday Life. The new bosses obviously appreciate her talent and passion for her chosen profession.

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  • January 16, 2014 at 9:24 pm
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    Congratulations Patricia you nailed it. Fair play to you
    To the victor, the spoils!

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